Since my first time in Africa, I witnessed that public transport mechanics can MacGyver any vehicle and make it run if they have to. Heck, you'll see drivers by the side of the road, scanning the immediate area for anything that might be improvised into a tool or a replacement part – and then they will perform a miracle before your eyes. With the right incentives, Africa's fleet of second-hand buses would be retrofitted to electric power in no time.
I've seen the same thing with jeepney drivers in the Philippines and tutktuk drivers in Thailand. The refurb-build-maintain-rejigger networks are the key infrastructure to rapidly electrifying the sector.
I wonder how much it would cost. The West to buy its old gas guzzlers back if it neglects its power grid enough, or turns away from the Natural Batteries God has given us in the form of coal an oil and natural gas long enough to be so dependent on the "Renewables" that can only be counted on for at best 25% of the time and cannot get started in the morning because the batteries are dead and there's not enough juice running through the wires?
The Third World could get rich off the stupidity of Westerners who have killed the giants on whose shoulders they have placidly surveyed the world.
Thank you for bringing up conversion! We are never going to get to where we need to go on climate change without solutions for conversion of both shared-use and personal vehicles, including in the United States.
Agree. And we need more attention (and more resources) for converting shared mobility. In the Global North because the personal car and SOVs are not sustainable (even if they are electric). In the Global South because the vast majority already use shared modes.
I think battery swapping makes a lot of sense for smaller vehicles, like what they do in India with e-rickshaws. But with bigger vehicles, it's just too cost prohibitive and resource inefficient. Instead of having a single battery per bus, you'd start thinking about 2-3 on average. With batteries being one of the most expensive elements of large vehicles, this doesn't make much sense to me.
I take your point, Sebastian but I think it's precisely that outright purchase is prohibitive that makes a subscription model make more sense. Rather than buying the battery, the operators "rent" the batteries. Exactly the same way the battery swapping is done for 2/3 wheelers. - Gogoro calls it "Battery as a Service." (I know, I know, not another "as a Service.")
yes, maybe the business case is there for larger batteries (though I doubt it). Still that doesn't mean it should be done. Just imagine the pressure on natural resources / mining labor conditions in developing countries of having to triple the number of batteries needed.
Hopefully, we get the battery recycling systems right. And maybe lithium-ferro-phosphate batteries will lower the environmental costs. (Of course, the counterfactual is, do we continue burning fossil fuels?)
David Roberts had a great explainer of all the tech under research a year ago:
Since my first time in Africa, I witnessed that public transport mechanics can MacGyver any vehicle and make it run if they have to. Heck, you'll see drivers by the side of the road, scanning the immediate area for anything that might be improvised into a tool or a replacement part – and then they will perform a miracle before your eyes. With the right incentives, Africa's fleet of second-hand buses would be retrofitted to electric power in no time.
I've seen the same thing with jeepney drivers in the Philippines and tutktuk drivers in Thailand. The refurb-build-maintain-rejigger networks are the key infrastructure to rapidly electrifying the sector.
I wonder how much it would cost. The West to buy its old gas guzzlers back if it neglects its power grid enough, or turns away from the Natural Batteries God has given us in the form of coal an oil and natural gas long enough to be so dependent on the "Renewables" that can only be counted on for at best 25% of the time and cannot get started in the morning because the batteries are dead and there's not enough juice running through the wires?
The Third World could get rich off the stupidity of Westerners who have killed the giants on whose shoulders they have placidly surveyed the world.
Thank you for bringing up conversion! We are never going to get to where we need to go on climate change without solutions for conversion of both shared-use and personal vehicles, including in the United States.
Agree. And we need more attention (and more resources) for converting shared mobility. In the Global North because the personal car and SOVs are not sustainable (even if they are electric). In the Global South because the vast majority already use shared modes.
I think battery swapping makes a lot of sense for smaller vehicles, like what they do in India with e-rickshaws. But with bigger vehicles, it's just too cost prohibitive and resource inefficient. Instead of having a single battery per bus, you'd start thinking about 2-3 on average. With batteries being one of the most expensive elements of large vehicles, this doesn't make much sense to me.
I take your point, Sebastian but I think it's precisely that outright purchase is prohibitive that makes a subscription model make more sense. Rather than buying the battery, the operators "rent" the batteries. Exactly the same way the battery swapping is done for 2/3 wheelers. - Gogoro calls it "Battery as a Service." (I know, I know, not another "as a Service.")
yes, maybe the business case is there for larger batteries (though I doubt it). Still that doesn't mean it should be done. Just imagine the pressure on natural resources / mining labor conditions in developing countries of having to triple the number of batteries needed.
Hopefully, we get the battery recycling systems right. And maybe lithium-ferro-phosphate batteries will lower the environmental costs. (Of course, the counterfactual is, do we continue burning fossil fuels?)
David Roberts had a great explainer of all the tech under research a year ago:
https://www.volts.wtf/p/the-ongoing-battle-among-lithium?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxMTM2MTEzLCJwb3N0X2lkIjozNTAxOTQ1MSwiXyI6IjlBU2lMIiwiaWF0IjoxNjQ0MjU2NjY1LCJleHAiOjE2NDQyNjAyNjUsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0xOTMwMjQiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.V2KCEmZ-xGmnpc1VdqmM5TamiQfVgfd1WyI9elxoJIo
ha yes! agree. As usual, I guess we just need to continue doing everything we can all the time :)